The acquisitions Microsoft wished it never made

Microsoft recently wrote off its Nokia smartphone business worth $7.6 billion

Margi Murphy
July 22, 2015

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Microsoft recently wrote off the entire value of the Nokia smartphone business it bought last year, along with one third of its staff.

Nokia’s phone unit was one of an estimated 180 acquisitions made by the software giant ranging from the successful Skype and loss making Sidekick smartphone. ComputerworldUK takes a look at other purchases that Microsoft wished it never made.

3. 3. LinkExchange

Microsoft bought banner advertising firm LinkExchange for $250 million (£160 million) in 1998. At this point the software giant was undergoing investigation for anticompetitive movements in the online market.

4. 4. aQuantive

Display advertising site aQuantive cost Microsoft $6 billion in 2007 in rivalry to Google’s DoubleClick. But by 2012, the firm’s online advertising business was struggling and it was forced to write off the value of the acquisition

5. 5. Massive

2006’s purchase of advertising site Massive was a poor choice, as in-game advertising failed to take off. Microsoft reportedly paid between two and four million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company closed in 2010.

6. 6. Ray Ozzie

Microsoft bought file sharing site Groove for $171 million (£109 million). It originally held a $51 million stake in the firm before buying it entirely for an extra $120 million in 2005. It’s alleged the purchase was purely to nab founder, Ray Ozzie’s skills. Ozzie took Gates’ role as chief software architect following the buy, but left in 2010 on bad terms, rendering Groove as another wasted - and costly – acquisition of talent.

8. 8. Danger

Microsoft bought the once popular Sidekick smartphone firm Danger in 2008 for $500 million. Similarly to Nokia, it was hoped the purchase would boost its mobile strategy however a brand new phone release was cancelled just six weeks after launching with Microsoft as its parent.

9. 9. Nokia

With $7.6 billion (£4.9 billion) written off, and one third of the Nokia staff fired, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella said the firm would create its own Windows mobile ecosystem after winding down the Nokia business it spent $6.2 billion on last year.

10. 10. Bonus round: Surface write-off

Not quite an acquisition, but another write-off came in the shape of Microsoft’s Surface tablets. In the second quarter of 2013 the company only sold 750,000 Surface Pro units. Overall its hardware division wrote off $900 million in inventory.